Wednesday, 6 February 2013

Quick hide! Its the feds!

I speak as
someone who knows a bit about criminal law. All it’s going to do is intimidate
staff who do care; remember Ms Saldhana? If you don’t you should – look up ‘a
moment ‘ under popular posts.

1) Criminal
law requires proof “beyond reasonable doubt”.

There are
three 8 hour shifts a day, so a patient sees a minimum of three nurses, three
care assistants and goodness knows how many Doctors in 24 hours.

Often you
see even more Nurses and Carers, depending on part time hours, shifts, sickness,
holidays whatever. It would be difficult to prove who did see the patient, let
alone the ones who didn’t bother to do anything.

Who is
responsible for neglect? Which one?

A criminal
lawyer would tear the case apart.

2) It is
very rare for deliberate harm like Harold Shipman and in any case this is already
covered by murder/assault.

3) Corporate
manslaughter is notoriously difficult to prove and the only sentence is a fine
against the organisation (that’s us, the taxpayers paying the fine).

No, the managers neglect is the real problem; it needs a
chain of command from the top down to the wards, with clear lines of responsibility.

Disciplinary action should be quick and open and it should result
from complaints. Currently it is in everyones interest to divert, to stall
complaints and take no real action.

There should be vigilant professional bodies, keen to
maintain standards and membership of such a body should be a job requirement
for everybody.

Trade Union representation is vital to protect staff from
bullying managers and this should be provided by a separate organisation to the
professional body responsible for maintaining standards.

Crininalising staff is exactly the wrong approach. The NHS is
its staff.

Is this never going to change?

Only if we make it.

It took the Stafford families and relatives 7 years fighting to
get this far, it took the Hillsborough families 23 years to get justice for their
loved ones, killed by police negligence at a football match.